Els mitjans de comunicació i l’esport

5.4.2.1. LIMITED KNOWLEDGE

The respondents suggest that the level of knowledge of ERP within the UK’s retail SFBs could be a hindrance to its adoption but not a major one. It was found that family members belonging to the older generation in SFBs often have little to no knowledge of the opportunities or benefits the successful adoption of ERP could avail them. They are comfortable with business performance and do not see any aspect of the business that ERP could contribute to.

It was further found that even though the next generation has had formal education and is aware of the enormous benefits of ERP adoption to business, their knowledge is, however, usually generic. Despite their best efforts, such knowledge contributes little to changing the older generation’s perception of the ERP system.

What I can say is that there is a trend that the next gen as you called it bring the ERP idea to business due to their knowledge of it from school but the parents often do not see a need for ERP as they've been in the industry and survived for a long time. - C2

It can be due to the level of knowledge they have; they understand the academic side of it but not the practicalities, but it is the reluctance of the owners in this case, often the mother and father, to invest in something they sort of think has been doing alright for years. - C1

While it is not uncommon that small businesses have little knowledge of beneficial technology such as the ERP system (Lenart, 2011; Marsh et al., 2014), the experts opined that, in their experience, knowledge of the ERP system by the younger generation did little to change the perception of the older generation. However, with the literature suggesting that SFBs commit to beneficial technology and that ERP is found to be beneficial (PWC, 2014; Lasisi et al., 2017), there is a need to further study SFBs to establish what influences decisions to adopt ERP. Also, due to the closed nature of the family in SFBs (Carney, 2005;

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Chrisman et al., 2015), the experts found it hard to penetrate the business. They were not able to identify what is responsible for the older generation’s reluctance aside from being comfortable with business performance. There is therefore a need to study individual UK retail SFB cases to achieve an in-depth exploration of how such strategic decisions are made. However, the reluctance of the SFBs to allow the experts into the business even after being contacted by the younger generation could also be attributed to the family’s fear of external intrusion (BIS, 2013; 2014). BIS (2013) posit that SFBs are usually not open to external aid for fear of losing family control, family money or the business. Expert C1 echoed this by suggesting that SFBs will not commit to ERP adoption unless they are sure of its advantages to their business. The implication could be that for UK retail SFBs to adopt the ERP system, ERP knowledge is better communicated through independent sources that are not affiliated with ERP companies. Rather, ERP knowledge should come from independent bodies perceived to have similar interests as SFBs as seen with C3 who SFBs approach for consultancy and advice due to the years of dedication and affiliation with such businesses. The experts were further probed on why it is vital for UK retail SFBs to have a clear understanding of the need for an ERP system.

5.4.2.2. NEED FOR MORE AWARENESS

The respondents suggest that it is important that UK retail SFBs become aware of the need for an ERP system. It was suggested that such awareness should, in fact, happen before the business becomes disadvantaged by its failure to adopt ERP. The cost of not using ERP early in a business could eventually outweigh the initial costs of its adoption.

It was further found that the ERP needs of the business could range from better management and policy compliance to operational or technological needs. It is important that businesses identify how ERP contributes to those needs to increase any chances of ERP adoption.

So, it’s really a case of, and it is a difficult one, but companies need to identify their growth and start investing in appropriate systems before the need for those systems becomes so overwhelming that they no longer have time to deploy them. It is a bit like getting a car serviced before it breaks down and not afterwards. It is always going to be more controlled and cheaper that they do it because otherwise, businesses start to deteriorate and fail in trying to continue with their old legacy systems and only when they start to fail they

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sometimes realise that they should have made the investment 6 months ago or 12 months ago. - C1

It is important that companies identify the benefits of ERP before the urgent need becomes a problem for the business. Although this is difficult especially with small businesses it is important for businesses to start identifying the benefits of systems before the need for those systems becomes so overwhelming that they no longer have the patience or time to wait for its implementation. In my experience, businesses have come to us after the legacy system crashed as a result of an overload and the business had to shut down pending the deployment of an advanced system. In most cases, the companies, after seeing how ERP has helped their business, come back to talk about their regrets of not deploying it a while back. - C2

The need for ERP tends to come when they are looking at coming away from just a core financial system, and they are looking at CRM, perhaps they are expanding into documentation, document management, invoice scanning, workflows, expanding beyond just the financial installations. - C1

Sometimes it’s operational needs, a situation where people are taking on new clients, and they look for enhanced functionalities to manage those. For example, we deal with the pharmaceutical firms a lot, and when you get to a certain size, you need to obtain certain approvals from the body that would force you to upgrade your systems. It can be customer led as in the customers demanding them. It can be technology led, where people need to upgrade to keep up with technology such as new workflow systems as the businesses expands. - C1

The retail industry may require documentations invoicing, CRM, etc. It could depend on the industry or the type of business and their situation. - C2

The experts’ suggestion that there is an urgent requirement for retail SFBs to understand the need to adopt the ERP system supports PWC (2014) which found that the ERP system is important to FB survival in a competitive market. Even though the experts could not establish the specific ERP needs of UK retail SFBs, the needs identified are typical of retail businesses as found in the literature (Hutchinson et al., 2013; Ahmed et al., 2015; ONS, 2016). The review of the literature also shows that some retail small businesses already take advantage of the ERP system for similar needs. Even though the ERP needs identified by the experts are generic, they cannot be argued as not being typical of retail SFBs. These ERP needs were

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also found in A6, the SFB evidence in the pilot study of FSMEs. As found from the literature, ERP adoption can bring about several benefits (Lasisi et al., 2017), and the experts suggest that it is important that individual businesses understand their ERP needs in order to understand the potential benefits of adoption.

The experts could not clearly identify when the need for ERP adoption in a typical retail SFB arises but insisted that the need for ERP adoption in SFBs is urgent. However, as established by Lasisi et al. (2017), ERP adoption may not benefit every aspect of a SFB. For that reason, and as established by experts, it is important to study individual cases of retail SFBs to establish how and when ERP might contribute to such businesses.

5.4.2.3. RAISING ERP AWARENESS

Raising ERP awareness in the UK’s retail SFBs is difficult due to the uniqueness of individual businesses and their varying needs. ERP knowledge in SFBs, where available, is usually based on generic benefits of the technology. Such knowledge, according to the experts, is usually not applicable to their business and eventually it puts them off adopting the ERP system. It was further suggested that cases showing evidence of the benefits of ERP adoption in similar businesses may serve a purpose in improving awareness, however, there are not many examples of UK retail SFBs benefiting from the adoption of ERP.

The respondents concluded that a clear, unambiguous method of educating such businesses on ERP would be beneficial to business and practitioners alike. Although, how that might be achieved was not explicitly given despite there being a few suggestions. The experts suggested the involvement of the government and other independent bodies to increase SFB’s knowledge of the need for ERP adoption as shown below.

A lot of consultants tend to go out and evangelise, if you like, the benefits of ERP and then they tend to get involved in putting together requirements, documents, and so on and so forth. The danger there is that, actually most of the time, the result is that these consultants will, I suppose, invite the customer to put forward every single wish, demand and request that they would like in a perfect world and turn that into 1 requirement document and send it out to providers and finally, when that comes in we have just to ignore them because the request that is made is so ridiculous, and it’s not just possible. - C1

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It is always a very difficult one as these businesses are not very open. A lot of experts tend to be unwilling to engage with these businesses due to the difficulties faced getting them to understand the system. - C2

To engage more especially with trusted consultants that would give them the exact benefits of ERP to their business and create a link with providers that can deliver the benefits. I mentioned trusted consultants because some consultants, as a result of not doing a good job of giving factual ERP benefits, discourage ERP usage by the few willing small companies when the generic benefits are not achievable with their business. - C2

We keep referring to family businesses but there are not many examples of these companies that did invest and have from say 500k income to 50-60 million in 10 years. But there is a trend that you can see where those that have made that early investment tend to be the ones that succeed. - C1

Well, there are many cases of businesses, which experienced tremendous unhindered growth after the deployment of ERP but there are not many such companies using ERP as we have dealt with some in the past. But I mentioned earlier that there are not so many examples which can be looked upon to serve as inspiration for other retail small family businesses. I personally do not see how such examples could help if the case does not specifically address the business. - C2

So, it needs almost what I would call local business networks like business links, chambers of commerce, etc. to run more workshops to introduce ERP providers and get them engaged with these businesses at an earlier stage, before the businesses start to expand and then start to crumble due to a lack of functionality. - C1

The findings above show that despite the suggestion that there is an urgent need for ERP adoption in SFBs, the authors are at a loss as to how best to make SFBs aware of the technology. It was further found that while the generic benefits of ERP adoption are good, they do little to influence ERP adoption in SFBs. Rather, it is the clarity on ERP benefits to individual SFBs that would better serve retail SFBs in the UK. The finding supports the literature that indicates the perceived benefits of technology to SFBs influence adoption decisions (Carrasco-Hernandez and Jimenez-Jimenez, 2013; De Massis, 2016). It is important that efforts are made to make UK retail SFBs aware of such benefits.

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While this study has, through the literature, established the benefits of ERP adoption for SFBs, there is a need to do the same for retail SFBs. It is also clear through the experts that it is hard for experts with other interests than those of the SFBs to convey such knowledge to UK retail SFBs. It then becomes important that independent experts, such as C3, and researchers, among others, to do more in terms of raising ERP awareness in the UK’s retail SFBs by focusing specifically on this sector. While the findings support the need for ERP studies focused on SFBs such as this one, the findings also point to the need for more effort by independent ERP experts to focus on making SFBs aware of the need to adopt ERP. Experts, in fact, emphasized the need for such knowledge to be conveyed at the earliest opportunity, especially to retail SFBs, before the businesses become unable to cope with either their own growth or the external competition. This method will help address some of the limitations of using generic ERP benefits from the literature as it was found that such benefits may not work for ERP adoption in SFBs. Rather, the use of such generic ERP knowledge, according to the experts, has over the years been counterproductive in getting retail SFBs to successfully adopt the technology.

Having found that there is a need to raise the level of ERP awareness within UK retail SFBs because adopting ERP brings enormous opportunities, clarification on ERP benefits to retail SFBs was discussed by the respondents.